Daily Archive

One week ago today, I put in a blog entry which talked about the usage of the phrase “politically incorrect.” In it I said:

“My belief is that as a result of this phrase, people have been tempted to behave more poorly than they would have.”

Two days later (last Saturday), the Star Tribune reported here about a party that had happened at Macalester College (here in the Twin Cities):

“. . . A friend was telling him about a party in a campus house that was built around the theme “politically incorrect.” One student came dressed as a Ku Klux Klan member, accompanied by another student who was in blackface and wore a fake noose around the neck. ‘My initial reaction was shock,’ Maitland-McKinley said. ‘I thought, this can’t really happen on my campus. … There is no getting past that many people were killed that way.’ Macalester is just the latest in a string of colleges nationwide to investigate student parties and incidents this year that have involved racial overtones.”

Now while I think (A) It’s probably true that those offended are making too big a deal about it, and (B) The College Administrations response – to make this a ‘teachable moment’ and talk things out and maybe we can make our students better – is a little silly, overly optimistic and a bit hypocritical, I still think this party was a bad and wrong-minded idea that was empowered by the popularity of the PC as a social concept.